Richard M Willis's dashboard

OK. I've reg'ed with LocalPhone and got a 01438 number to call from. Two things here:

1. It asked me for my PIN; why can't it validate me on my CLI ? I'll only ever use that number (my t-Mobile) for calling LocalPhone.

2. Is there any chance that I can call 0800 numbers through the same number ?

My Nokia E71 has the facility to be programmed to dial an access number and send following DTMF for numbers which match a specific pattern; I can only have one such setup though, and I'd rather not have to choose between LP and 0800B !

One other point. The web sign up made great play of saying that it would give me a LOCAL uk wired-line number to dial; why does this matter ? Geographic calls within the UK have been flat-rate regardless of "local"-ness for some time now.
Richard [in SG1] – Richard M Willis, on August 11, 2009 17:02

How does this work ? I need to be able to dial *any* arbitrary 0845 or 0870 numbers via a geog number. How do I pay ? Is it PAYG ? – Richard M Willis, on August 10, 2009 18:52

There's no point in 0800Buster providing the ability to call 03.. numbers by this method, as they're charged at geog rate anyway, even from mobiles. There's no point in dialing a geog number, just to get to another geog number, at the same rate !

My understanding is that 0800 Buster are a Tier 1 telephone provider. They are obviously re-originating the call and for the CLI to be passed to the recipient, they (0800Buster) are re-injecting the CLI into the network, rather than using the CLI of the number from which they are making the "new" call.

If they can inject "any old CLI" into the network (and you trust them to do it properly), then they can just as easily inject the "WITHHELD" flag into the network.

0800Buster will see your CLI whether you withhold or not.

They appear to have the facility to mark the ongoing call as withheld (so an outside-of-the-network recpient won't see the number). Whether they actually do or not, I don't know.

If they do, it begs the question as to whether the 141 prefix should be dialed before the 0800 B number, or whether it should be dialed as DTMF when dialing the ultimate 0800 number.

It *should* be dialed before the 0800 Buster Number, and interpreted by them as an instruction to withhold. Also, those people who have withhold-by-default (possibly using 1470 to unwithhold) should have the correct withhold status sent to the callee.

Unlike in the USA, 0800 recipients (unless they're a telco), don't get to see withheld numbers.

Ah. OK. Thank you. I get a bit paranoid about these things.
I wasn't aware that LocalPhone or 0800Buster had been around for a long time. (I'd never heard of you before !)

Ah. Sorry. I was given an 01205 number; I thought everybody got the same number, but this is not the case: there's a pool of them.

Denise, that's the way it's supposed to work. You dial the 01205 number and the computer then answers and prompts you to enter the (0800) number that you really want to call.

Did you attempt to type in the number and then the # key ?

The computer is actually starting a new call on your behalf and the only way it can get the number from you is for you to type it in as DTMF. This sort of thing has been standard for a number of years now.

However, from what you've described, it sounds as if your phone is not set-up to send DTMF when you press keys on the keypad when a call is in progress. This is very rare these days. Even if you hear the DTMF tones with each keypress, these could still be fakes and not sent over the air.

You need to scan your phone's menu system and look for an option "send DTMF in call" or similar.

Richard [in SG1]